Wow ... I've never been a "fan boy" I just like Apple products. But the new iPad exceeds in terms of battery life. It's as good as the iPad 3.

I'm still traveling before arriving to Colombia. Two airports and 24hrs later (due plane changes and two stops) I still have 30% battery. I even watched two movies using Amazon Prime offline: Ted and HeadHunters, both fully recommended by the way... :-)

Of course, it was not on all the time, but most of the trip. I'm just writing this from the mini , by the way...

I cannot speak for the mini, but they have finally figured out how to provide a long lasting battery in an iPod touch. Of course it took them 5 tries to get it right! My iPod touch 5 and iPad 3 both have long battery use times although the iPad does much better when notifications and WiFi or ON. If I use a lot of WiFi and/or notifications with the touch 5 then the battery drains about twice as fast or more. Those are normally turned off when traveling so that might have an impact on why your battery is lasting so long.

A huge battery drain on the touch is taking photos or shooting video. Those two actions can drain the battery in a heart beat!

Wow ... I've never been a "fan boy" I just like Apple products. But the new iPad exceeds in terms of battery life. It's as good as the iPad 3.

I'm still traveling before arriving to Colombia. Two airports and 24hrs later (due plane changes and two stops) I still have 30% battery. I even watched two movies using Amazon Prime offline: Ted and HeadHunters, both fully recommended by the way... :-)

Of course, it was not on all the time, but most of the trip. I'm just writing this from the mini , by the way...

This size and aspect ratio is just perfect!

Glad you enjoy your device, but I'm curious about the "aspect ratio is perfect" if you use it for movies, given that most content is either 16:9 or 21:9...

Yes, the ipad mini has awesome battery life. I'm so glad I bought the ipad mini a week ago (32gb wifi), I use it all the time, all my ebooks (kindle reader and the almost perfect marvin reader), my music, lots of photos and about 6 games (bought some super cheap games that have been on sale this week for 99 cents) Love the screen ratio, better for me than all the android 7 inch tablets.

Yes, it's great. It also holds it's charge well when not in use as well. My eyes are getting a bit old to be reading on an iPhone or iTouch (as is the rest of me <grin>) so I use the iPad mini to replace my Kindle Fire for reading at lunch or in bed, i.e. places where a full size iPad is inconvenient. I basically only charge it once a week and I've never had it drop below 80%. I also love the way iBooks syncs up, both where I am in a book as well as various changes to categories and moving books between categories.

Wow ... I've never been a "fan boy" I just like Apple products. But the new iPad exceeds in terms of battery life. It's as good as the iPad 3.

I'm still traveling before arriving to Colombia. Two airports and 24hrs later (due plane changes and two stops) I still have 30% battery. I even watched two movies using Amazon Prime offline: Ted and HeadHunters, both fully recommended by the way... :-)

Of course, it was not on all the time, but most of the trip. I'm just writing this from the mini , by the way...

This size and aspect ratio is just perfect!

Hey jocampo
Since the screen size of the iPad mini is smaller than previous iPad models, it is consuming lesser power from battery and hence backup is great.
By the way Headhunters is a nice movie..

Whats the recommendation on batteries these days - is is still best to let the battery run down entirely before charging the first few times?

It is never good to allow the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch battery to discharge completely to 0%. However, it is a good idea to allow it to discharge to about 15% before recharging. I would do this the first time or two that you use the iDevice and then about once a month thereafter.

It is never good to allow the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch battery to discharge completely to 0%. However, it is a good idea to allow it to discharge to about 15% before recharging.

Is there an authoritative source somewhere, Jack, that would confirm this? Like, Apple themselves? I've heard so many theories and rumours regarding battery life that I just don't know whom to trust anymore.

Allowing the iPad do discharge down to 15% regularly is not practicable for me. That's because the iPad 3+ takes a long time to charge again, much longer than iPad 1 or iPad 2. This would then pose the danger, for me, to have to leave home/office without the iPad fully charged, which might cause problems for me later in the day.

Ever since the iPad 1 first came out, I have adopted the practice of recharging the iPad (and iPhone) as soon as the battery level drops to 59% or below. My iPad 1 and iPhone 4, both in their third year now, are still going strong in terms of battery life, as if they were still new.

Is there an authoritative source somewhere, Jack, that would confirm this? Like, Apple themselves? I've heard so many theories and rumours regarding battery life that I just don't know whom to trust anymore.

Allowing the iPad do discharge down to 15% regularly is not practicable for me. That's because the iPad 3+ takes a long time to charge again, much longer than iPad 1 or iPad 2. This would then pose the danger, for me, to have to leave home/office without the iPad fully charged, which might cause problems for me later in the day.

Ever since the iPad 1 first came out, I have adopted the practice of recharging the iPad (and iPhone) as soon as the battery level drops to 59% or below. My iPad 1 and iPhone 4, both in their third year now, are still going strong in terms of battery life, as if they were still new.

I think the only reason to allow the device to discharge down is to help calibrate the charge indicator but otherwise, as you say, there isn't much point. If it is low at the end of the day then an overnight charge should work fine. If you use a larger capacity charger on the mini it should charge faster by the way like one for the bigger iPad's.

I have all sorts of chargers, Turtle, especially one with an extra-long cord (5 feet or so), because those ultra-short cords Apple includes in the packages with iOS devices are often inconvenient.

I have noticed no improvement in the speed of charging my iPad 1 or iPhone 4, no matter which charger I use. But perhaps I haven't noticed it because both iPad 1 and iPhone 4 charge pretty quickly for me, so I've never had to think about their charge-time a lot.

iPad 3 is a very different story. It takes a very long time to fully recharge with the cord Apple included in the package (I'd say at least 5 or 6 hours from 2% to 100%), and none of my other adapters have managed to speed this up. It takes even longer to charge if I attempt to charge iPad 3 with the iPhone charger. Then it just crawls along, barely charging it at all. Whereas I've been able to charge the iPad 1 with my iPhone 4 charger without any issues.

However, if I recharge the iPad 1 or iPad 3 as soon as the battery drops to 59% or below (and I have the opportunity), then the difference isn't as dramatic, as when charging from all the way down. That's why I try avoiding battery levels such as 15% or 30% on my iPad 3, because the Retina-screen iPad just takes a lot of time to recharge fully.

I have no information about 2.1V chargers. If you can post a specific link, please do. Also, I live in Central Europe, and iOS chargers are likely different depending on which region of the world you live in. (When you visit Italy and Germany, two countries relatively close to each other, they both use different types of plugs. There are even more differences between continents.)